Microsoft's telescope gets a better view of Mars

The software maker has teamed with NASA to offer much more expansive imagery. Other improvements to the telescope make the seams between individual images much less visible and add an improved spherical image of the full sky.

Microsoft's improvements to its Worldwide Telescope project include tons of additional Mars images from NASA.
Courtesy of Microsoft/NASA

Microsoft has made a number of improvements to its Worldwide Telescope project, including partnering with NASA to offer much better imagery of the planet Mars.

In some cases, the imagery lets you get close enough to see details such as the tracks left by the Mars rovers.

"You can see the boulders and things like that," Dan Fay, director of Earth, Energy, and Environment for Microsoft Research. Microsoft previously teamed with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a Mars project that let youngsters and other space enthusiasts help count and label craters on the planet's surface.

With these changes, the telescope will gain several different new views of Mars as well as guided tours from some of NASA's experts on Earth's neighbor.

About the author

During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.
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